Driving Trainer, Another Ride & Ground Tying

I think I am cursed. I swear. I can’t stop learning about horses. I just wished I had the money to get the lessons I want. I’d like to get more into dressage. That is easy enough just gotta get my but to my trainer. Then here I am online looking up driving trainers. I have been looking for a driving trainer for years. I swear there is no good quality driving trainers around. That is until I found a website. I have to do some research and email a few people about this place but it looks pretty safe. I’m actually pretty excited that I may have found a driving trainer. Wow, Wynter as a driving horse…. Super cool! I am super excited. Then there is this small problem called money. Training is one thing but a cart and harness is quite another all together.

Ok and I am certifiable if I even consider learning side saddle I swear. Imagine Wynters long mane and tail and him being shown side saddle! Ahh the romance of it…. Yup I’m nuts seriously nuts!

Today we just started with the basics. Lots of bending, I was trying to feel if his dentists appointment made a difference. Not really sure but I think it did. Now that I think about it I think it helped a lot actually. He was more relaxed softer in his mouth and he carried himself higher. He was still heavy on the right but that may not be just a teeth problem. Liz rode Toccata around so he had himself a nice distraction actually so did I. I kept an eye on her and Tots and kept yelling out pointer here and there so I was pretty distracted.

We bent for a long time going right left inside outside bla bla. Cookie cutter routine stuff. Then we trotted going between sitting and posting trot. I pulled a few of the poles down before we started and took him over a few trot poles here and there. He is getting a lot better about mentally handling them. Before he would get flustered and loose his rhythm and stride. Now he is getting a bit more control and able to go over them and maintain a frame and rhythm. That made me happy.

Our canter work was also pretty good. I just need to ride him more and we wouldn’t be stuck doing the same thing every single time. Again cookie cutter stuff. We started with the left side. He was good I tried to keep the head popping to a minimum which he tolerated well. The going right is still an adventure. Today he tried to ignore the inside rein and just blow through it which he got into trouble for. He got backed off of it and check hard a few times, just a reality check here and there. We also went around 5 stride instead of 3 or 4 just because he was holding his head and neck up a lot better than before. Not sure how teeth cam make that much of a difference but it seems like it did. He was very up not to the point of being a saddle bred but more so to a lazy classic style Arabian pleasure horse. A lot better than check his whole head and neck up.

After we cantered we had to help Liz. This took a while. I parked Wynter near a jump and gave Liz a lesson on Tots. Am I ever glad I chose to ride Wyn. She was a pain in the you know what! I was very impressed with her say… vigor. Liz and her had an all out War for the canter tracking right. Very entertaining. I try and make my lessons fun and we usually laugh while we are having a hard time and today was no different. As Toccata acted like a crab we were laughing. Wynter wasn’t sure what was going. He stood like a gentleman the entire time. Well, I take that back. I have a bad tendency of ‘ghost’ riding while sitting on another horse. I was adding spur where Liz needed to add spurs so Wynter moved a few times because of that. It was entirely my fault and he knew it was because I wasn’t paying attention. He just took a step and looked at me like get the spur out of my side unless you want to go to work.

I was pretty happy with Wynter tonight. He is such a worker. He only nickered at Tots 2 times and got in trouble for them. At the end of the ride he would giver her the puppy dog look but not talking. After Liz had her war I made him do a few more canter transitions. I admit I was being a bt mean to him. We sat there for a long time watching Liz and then I ask him to canter. If it was Arlo he would have got pissed. Wynter on the other hand is a trooper and just said ok if you insist.

Since he pooped one in the pen and we pick all of our manure from the arena I rode him to the bin in the middle of the pen. I picked up the pitch fork while I was on him. He did not think that was a neat idea in the least. He did not freak out but he was very skeptical in Wynter’s special way. Not flighty just ‘tender’. He had to step away from it a few times and when I asked him to walk straight he wasn’t sure if he like the hovering object following him. He kept and ear on it the entire time. Then when we reached his pile I slowly set it on the ground and leaned the handle on his shoulder. This he could have cared less for which I was glad. I’d like to be able to pick the pile while staying mounted like I can with Marz but he needs a bit more confidence before I go shaking sand out of the scary fifth limb.

For fun because it was something Marz taught herself I thought it would be fun to teach the stallion how to ground tie. Yeah because that is something people do with there stallions all the time right! I had already threw his right rein on the ground while I picked up his mess. Thus I just extended it and walked back to the bin. I got half way there when he had to turn and try and follow me. I don’t think he ever expected to get in trouble for following me. I turned around shanked him back and put him back in the same spot in the same position that he started in, saying WHOA. Walking away he turned, more or less did a fore hand turn but he stayed. I went back grabbed him and lead him toward the next pile he had left and did the same thing. Again he had to turn I just said WHOA and he stopped. We did this several times making sure I said WHOA very clearly after I made a big deal out of the reins being dropped on the ground. I think about 5 times and he had it pretty mastered even with Toccata standing oh so vulnerable 8 feet over. He s such a good boy. Love him love him love him!